BRIDGEPORT -- Ten city massage parlors were raking in the cash by allegedly operating as houses of prostitution -- but they weren't the only ones profiting from the illicit trade.

The landlords who own the buildings where the alleged sex businesses operated were also making a buck -- including developer Sal Dinardo of Fairfield, who has a long history of battling local officials over his properties and what he does with them.

Recently the police and city's health department shut down 10 of these suspected brothels that stretched from the North End to Black Rock.

But just days after police slapped "closed" signs on the doors, two, Kay's Hong Kong at 602 North Ave., and Chateau Health Spa, at 2662 Fairfield Ave., were back in business providing "happy endings," to men from Westport, Ansonia and Cheshire, police said.

The owners of both businesses were arrested and charged with violating the city's massage establishment regulations -- but the owners of the buildings continued to score rent from these illegal parlors.

Mayor Bill Finch said massage parlors -- which cater to suburbanites as well as city residents -- aren't the type of businesses he wants in the city.

"We want our city to be a thriving and welcoming place for families, and forward-thinking, growth oriented businesses. These are not the types of enterprises we want to encourage in our city," Finch said.

DiNardo owns a number of derelict buildings in the city -- but claimed he didn't know one of his tenants was operating an alleged brothel.

"I knew something was there but I didn't know what it was," said DiNardo, of the Fantasy Studio at 536 Lindley St. "When I bought the building, I intended to rip it down to put something else there and now I'm ripping it down."

Next door to Michael P. Brennan's Black Rock bar, Brennan's Shebeen, is the Chateau Health Spa. Brennan collects rent from the massage parlor as well as from the manager of Silver in his building at 2746 Fairfield Ave. He did not return repeated calls for comment.

"I'm not talking to you about this," she exclaimed before hanging up the telephone.

"It's closed now," said Americo Paniccia, of Trumbull, when asked about the Hawaii Salon in his building at 3482 Fairfield Ave. at the Fairfield line. "They've been there 20 years and I've never had any problem with them."

A woman who identified herself as the owner/manager of Jasmine Salon, at 40 Summerfield Ave., complained that police were "picking" on her.

"This is not fair, we have been here five years and we are not doing anything wrong," said the woman who would not give her name. "I pay my taxes and every morning I go out and pick up the garbage all over the street."

"The lady comes out every morning and cleans the street with a broom, I have never had a problem with them being here, they are good neighbors," he said.

The woman said she is getting a massage license and expects to reopen soon.

Sylvester Salcedo has operated his law office over Kay's Hong Kong for eight years and considers them good neighbors.

"I certainly don't condone exploiting women, but I have not seen any evidence of that going on there," he said. "These are women in their 40s and 50s and their clientele appears to be white middle-aged men in sports coats."

A former U.S. Navy officer, Salcedo said he not so naive to believe they are only doing massages on the floor below his office. But he said he is tolerant of the activities as long as it doesn't cause a disturbance or degrade the quality of life in the neighborhood.

"When I lived in Black Rock there were more problems because of the bars than the massage parlors," he said.

In front of the Osaka Oriental Spa at 3923 Main St. is a plaque mounted on a granite pedestal stating the parlor, along with the small group of businesses there, were the result of a city "streetscape" project in 2007. The owner of the building, Yong W. Kim, of Roslyn, N.Y., did not return calls for comment.